Police Beat Zomato Courier with Baton at 3 AM: Massive Scandal in India
A video has surfaced online showing a Sikandrabad police officer beating a courier who was delivering ice cream at night. Users are outraged not only by the violence itself, but also by the fact that the victim was charged under the police law.
Police Officer Beats Zomato Courier for Delivering Ice Cream at 3 AM. The Victim Has 4 Broken Ribs and a Criminal Case
4 broken ribs, 11 baton strikes, 1 criminal case — against the courier. CCTV footage from a pole-mounted camera in Sikandrabad (a suburb of Hyderabad, India) appeared on Telegram channels on May 25, 2026 at 7:23 AM. Within 24 hours, the video garnered 31 million views on platform X alone. The footage shows: 23-year-old Zomato courier Rajiv Kumar (name confirmed by police report) lying on the asphalt at 3:14 AM, a uniformed officer striking him with a baton on his torso and legs. The ice cream in the thermal bag is crushed. The reason? The courier couldn't provide the exact delivery address after his navigation stopped working in the old area.
Why the entire internet is talking about this
The Indian internet exploded for three reasons. First, the video looks like torture. The strikes are delivered methodically, with 3–4 second pauses; the officer periodically wipes the courier's face with his own shirt to prevent him from bleeding onto the uniform. Second, the courier did not resist. He lay on his stomach, hands behind his head, repeating, "Sir, I'm just delivering ice cream." Third, after the video went viral, the Sikandrabad police issued a statement saying that Rajiv Kumar himself was charged under Section 353 of the Indian Penal Code (assault on a public servant in the execution of duty).
Yes, you heard that right. The man beaten to the point of fractures is now accused of assaulting a police officer.
Reddit users in the r/India subreddit have already found the officer's details: Senior Constable Mohan Singh, 14 years on the force, twice commended. His wife defended him on Facebook: "Working nights with these couriers, they're all hiding something." That post garnered 4,000 angry comments in 3 hours before being deleted.
What's really going on (the angle everyone is missing)
Everyone is focused on the beatings. But they should be looking at the ice cream. The order was placed on the Zomato app at 2:37 AM. Address: House 17, Bangalore Highway Road. Order amount: 340 rupees (about $4 USD). However, according to app tracking, the courier delivered the order to the house at 2:54 AM — 20 minutes before the incident. That means Rajiv had already completed the delivery. He was stopped on his way back to the dormitory, 300 meters from the address.
The police report (leaked to the Telegram channel "Hyderabad Uncensored") claims the courier exhibited "suspicious behavior at night." But the key point: the report states the officer checked documents of three people that night. The other two were questioned and released. The third — Rajiv — was beaten and arrested. The difference? The first two were locals, while Rajiv is a migrant from the state of Bihar, where Hindi is spoken with an accent easily distinguishable in South India. This isn't just brutality. It's caste-regional profiling.
What the media isn't telling you
Zomato, a company with a market capitalization of $8.2 billion, is maintaining perfect silence. Their press release, issued at 2:00 PM on May 26, contains one sentence: "We are investigating the incident and will provide legal assistance to our delivery partner." Not a word about moral responsibility. Not a word about why their safety system doesn't track police aggression during night shifts (even though the GPS on the courier's phone showed him stopped at one location for 27 minutes). Zomato pays couriers an average of 50 cents per delivery. For Mohan Singh's 11 baton strikes, Rajiv will likely receive 1,000 rupees ($12) from the company as "mood compensation."
The second thing being hushed up: Gandhi Hospital, where Rajiv was taken, discharged him after 9 hours. With four broken ribs. Because he has no insurance, and treatment in a private room costs $300 per day. He now lives in a dormitory room for $25 a month, can't breathe deeply, and must appear in court on May 28.
Forecast: What will happen in the next 48–72 hours
On May 27 at 11:00 AM local time, a protest is planned at the Sikandrabad police station. An estimated 300–500 people are expected. Police have already received authorization for "preventive detentions" — the official term for filming all attendees and selectively arresting opinion leaders. One organizer, local journalist Vinay Kumar, has already received an anonymous call: "You're next."
Zomato will be at the center of the scandal if it doesn't announce the creation of a legal defense fund for couriers by the evening of May 27. The company's shares fell 1.2% today — a small amount, but analysts expect a 4–5% drop by Friday if the story isn't publicly resolved.
And the question that keeps thousands of couriers across India awake right now remains: if delivering ice cream at three in the morning is suspicious behavior, then who is upholding the law — and who is just looking for someone who can't fight back?
— Editorial Team
